Recently I lost my mother. A painful experience but necessary, and after grieving I feel I learned some important things about life from it. I would not take a pill in order to forget that she died.

The question of a pill to erase memory is compelling and reaches into the depths of what it is to be human and what makes the soul grow. And when I think about my own traumas and wonder which of them I might benefit from exclusing I become unclear. There are several from which I see no obvious benefit. However, I’m not sure. How would I be different? Who would I have touched less or more?

We do know refined support fosters recovery of our fuller humanity. Perhaps we should just continue to show the beautiful ways that can work.

Jan Crawford

Brian,

Were you able to go to Peter’s class on memory and emotion? This article seems to be focused in the same direction. I am hoping that he offers it again at a time that I can attend. Thank you for suggesting I re-read the article. I read the first time with a closed mind.

I have a client that I have been working with for years who had “memories” of things that her mind created to explain preverbal abuse. When her sister told her what actually happened, she finally had a real story to go with the sensations and it was actually making sense to her. I saw how emotion linked to sensation created a need for these false memories. Her mind needed an explanation in order to accept or “understand” the sensations that she was experiencing.

I will maintain an open mind on this issue to see what comes forth in the future. It will be interesting to see where it goes.

This is honestly one of the most exciting pieces of research an SE therapist could hope for. Somatic Experiencing® is the process of doing exactly what this drug essentially does. Every word of this article is complete validation for everything we do in an SE session and why what we do works. Essentially, we too are “erasing” memories. I will explain what I mean.

The article asserts that “Memories are not formed and then pristinely maintained, . . they are formed and then rebuilt every time they’re accessed. ” It goes on to say “The larger lesson is that because our memories are formed by the act of remembering them, controlling the conditions under which they are recalled can actually change their content.” Each time we have a client access a memory, track the sensations and complete and incomplete defensive response. . . we have essentially changed (“erased”) an aspect of their memory and replaced it with a new memory. It has been newly consolidated with the completed defensive response, the competent protector, our compassionate presence or other such modification that actually “erases” the memory as it once existed and replaces it with a newly modified version of “reality”. In the future when they think of the original incident, the memory, now has the new association of empowered action, support, etc that was missing. A good SE therapist is harnessing the same principles this drug works on. In our sessions “a network of cells is constantly being reconsolidated, rewritten, remade.” It is the beauty of SE® and why our work is so powerful at changing peoples perspective on their trauma.

As Karim Nader states “Anything can change memory. This technology isn’t new. It’s just a better version of an existing biological process.” The article points out that talk therapy is rather inefficient at changing memories and can often result in the driving the actual traumatic memory deeper into the persons associations. SE® therapists are very conscious of not having the client re-live or re-expience the memory as it actually happened, even if it is solely by introducing time and slowing the process way down. Accessing an aspect of memory and then slowing down the process in an SE® session “erases” the memory as it happened and reconsolidates it into a new memory which isn’t how the actual original memory was formed.

The article also addresses the process of “uncoupling” aspects of the memory from the actual event. “By coupling these amnesia cocktails to the memory reconsolidation process, it’s possible to get even more specific . . . . By injecting a protein synthesis inhibitor before the rats were exposed to only one of the sounds—and therefore before they underwent memory reconsolidation—the rats could be “trained” to forget the fear associated with that particular tone. “Only the first link was gone,” This is essentially what we are working with when we work with one element of SIBAM. We might work with just the sound of the car accident, bringing the memory up into consciousness and pairing it with a more pleasant sound. Eventually as we do this the sound of breaking glass gets uncoupled from the memory of the car accident. The rest of the elements of the trauma from the car accident are still in place, but with one aspect of the memory “erased”. The sound is no part of the memory and cannot therefore trigger it. Indeed, now the sound of breaking glass may trigger fond memories of birds chirping in the spring. The “pill” is essentially doing the same thing, with the exception that in SE® we can be much more creative, nuanced and refined and the memory can be reshaped or erased and reformed in limitless possibilities unique to the individuals own biological wisdom. The client learns a capacity that is their evolutionary heritage and birthright and need not be dependent on Big Pharma.

I encourage every SE® therapist to re-read this article with different lens and perspective. As you read the article, look for how it is informing and giving validation for everything that you do as an SE® therapist.